The new face of loyalty

Jason Alba has a thought provoking post over at the JibberJobber blog. He speaks of a VP he met on a trip - they discussed how difficult it is to have been fired and to then enter a new job with any kind of loyalty. Jason said he didn't think he could have that kind of loyalty again. The VP said, 'Sure you will have loyalty. But you’ll be cautiously optimistic.'

I think "cautious optimism" is a great response to a job market in flux. With C-level tenures shrinking to three years and under (CMOs are trending at just about 18 months!) loyalty tempered with cautious optimism for the length of employment sounds just about right.

Of course that doesn't mean one should be cautiously optimistic about doing the job - doing the job requires loyalty to the team and full-out optimism and energy.

In my comment on Jason's blog post I suggested that for savvy career activists who know that they must be prepared to move at anytime, a good phrase might be "Cautiously optimistic. Change ready."

What do you need to do to create your own career (not job) security?

Are you change ready?

Comments

[Megan]

Hi Deb,

In Tom Peters article on personal branding, he said that company loyalty is dead. He said that the only loyalty you should be worried about is loyalty to your team, your colleauges, your customers and most importantly yourself.

I think perhaps making that shift is going to help people free themselves of that struggle or tension....since it doesn't serve them to have that company loyalty anyway.

Just love your new site/blog,

Ciao ciao!
Megan
Expat Career and Entrepreneur Coach
www.careerbychoiceblog.com